I agree with Matthew Yglesias (and Henry Farrell): (Many) Books Are Too Long. Over the years I have slowly stopped reading books, though I read copiously on the Web.
There are two reasons for this slowdown, depending on the book:
- for non-fiction, I side with Farrell: “They (the authors) make an interesting point, and then they make it again, and again, padding it out with some quasi-relevant examples, and tacking on a conclusion about What It All Means which the author clearly doesn’t believe herself. The length of the average book reflects the economics of the print trade and educated guesses as to what book-buyers will actually pay for, much more than it does the actual intellectual content of the book itself.” I don’t know how many books that I have picked up, read about 50-100 pages and then thought: well, it is clear that the author needed to pad this out to get it in the 200-400 page range and therefore chapters 4, 5, 6, etc. and revisions of chapters 1, 2 and 3. At that point, I put the book away.
- With fiction, too often I pick it up and read the jacket to get a sense of it, and the sense I get is reading a synopsis of something that is ultimately aimed at becoming a film one day. (I can almost hear the movie trailer narrator as I read it: “In a time of trouble, John Doe rises up to deal with some difficulty or other”. Of course if it is really serious fiction, then John Doe will fail and suffer.) And it too will go on for 200-400 pages when it could easily be done really well in 100. So I put it back.
Of course that is not all books. I have read and loved great works of non-fiction, like Stalingrad and The Peacekeepers, that are 500-1000 pages long and loved them. Likewise, two of my favourite fictional works are The Satanic Verses and The Brothers Karamozov, neither of which is short (and in many cases, of varying quality). But alot of fiction and nonfiction that I read, or start to read, could easily be 99 pages and priced at $3.99.
Right now I am reading Seneca’s “The Shortness of Life”, part of Penguin’s Great Books series. Frankly, at $9.99 it feels overpriced. But I love the size and format, and appreciate the opportunity to read works like this. I would likely buy more if they were cheaper.
When eBooks started to take off, I was hopeful that writers and publishers would consider alternative forms and lengths of works. I think that would be very enticing. Instead, we can see from this, Amazon Caves To Macmillan’s eBook Pricing Demands, that nothing is going to change in the book publishing world. At least from inside the book publishing world. Instead, it will happen outside the book publishing world. If MacMillan and others think that they can price this way for an eBook, based on protecting their own margins, they are likely in for a bad surprise.
One more thing: I am surprised how much teen hardcover fiction is. I buy it for my 14 year old and most of it is $19.99. Why? Because teens won’t / can’t pay more than that. So why do the hardcover fiction aimed at adults cost almost twice the price. The quality of the book itself is the same.
Generally I find books today are poor value. I am afraid ebooks will be the same. And what the book publishing industry will find eventually is that they go the way of the music industry.
Smart People I Know 
Great post Bernie. I just bought two hardcover books from Amazon. Linchpin by Seth Godin and Made to Stick by the Heath Bros. Just area of interest for me and I find the ideas thought provoking. What floored me was the “jacket” price at Chapters – Over $30 ea. from what I can recall. I switch gears and turned to Amazon and paid $20 ea. This part I don’t understand why the 50% delta?exact same paper product in my hand…crazy. The reality is that this content should be made more available electronically (I would still pay) but take all of the “middle meat” out of the cost model, publisher, distribution, retail bricks and mortar etc. I would email a payment directly to the author if I had my way. The old school publishing model is dead, by they just won’t let it go.
Jeff, thanks. I think the additional cost essentially pays for the Indigo real estate (which I am guessing is pricey, given their location). I also think there is more impulse buying in bookstores, so people will see something and pick it up, rather than wait and buy it online at home.
The old school model does have to change, but like music, it doesn’t know how. But hey, don’t worry: I am sure Apple has some ideas! 🙂
I think you inadvertently hit the nail on the head in your post. You say you feel ripped off paying $10 for Seneca. So implicitly you feel there is a correlation between price and length of a written work. However, I bet the economics do not work that way. Probably there isn’t that much difference in cost for writing a 200pg book vs a 400pg book. In fact, I bet that the editing process could be very expensive to turn a 400pg book into a 200pg book. Yet you feel that it’s more justified to pay more for the longer book. It seems people have much more trouble pricing quality vs quantity.
No, the economics don’t work that way. But look at it this way. Most trade paperbacks are under $20 vs $10 for the Penguin. The Penguins are a lot less costly to print, ship and store than the trades. PLUS the Penguins are all of authors they have to pay nothing for. So yes, I think Penguin overcharges for the books, compared to trades.
Now, Penguin can argue that they sell less of them, etc. But the costs at least should be a lot less for them, and they should be able to price them for less.
I bet that Penguin instead thinks: a) the people who buy this type of book is willing to pay more for books generally b) the actual price $9.99 is under double digits (vs 16.95 or 19.99) and c) people who read this will pay more for the quality. So Penguin charges more.
Well, I like long fiction books. My favorite book is Lord of the Rings (I first read when I was a young teen and is the one of the only few books I have read multiple times). Other books I like are Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett) and Shogun, both are over 1,000 pages.
I do agree that the book sellers and publishers will have to adjust their pricing model with this new medium, as the music industry has done with iTunes.
I like LoTR too. I think the key is for the story to be compelling and the length to make sense. (I haven’t read the others.) When that’s true, I don’t want a fictional book to end, no matter how long. Same with non-fiction. I’ve read “Stalingrad” three times, and it is over 600 pages in length. (It’s great history written like a novel.)
It will be interesting days in the book business, for sure!
I think people should be careful about the consequences of going fully digital with books. An e-book and a paper book are two very different things. A paper book can be lent to others, can never be recalled after being purchased, sections can be OCRed for personal use, etc. Libraries are paying a lot more to make e-resources available to the public than paper books. The e-book revolution is giving publishers what they have always wanted: to be able to lock down their content even further. Saving $5 on an e-book vs a used paper book is definitely not worth it (given the issues stated above) in my opinion.
An aside to the reader above who questioned about the higher cost of purchases in store, another thing to keep in mind is that you have access to sales staff. My mother-in-law works for chapters and it’s pretty amazing the sort of stuff she can find for people (think “it has something to do with a boy and I think it has a bird on the cover”). I think it’s fair to charge more for additional services and instant access to the book you want (stocking fees). For those who don’t need that we can easily order online.
two great points, Tom. I think used books would be better than eBooks myself: the price point is better, and I like the form of a real book better.
I never thought about it, but you are right, Tom: the staff at Indigo and other book stores are great at providing information you can’t get easily from a computer systerm….well worth going to the store sometimes just to tap into that knowledge.
Even if ebooks are overpriced, it will at least remove part of the pressure to increase book length to hit certain industry standards. I feel like I am more irrational about physical books “having weight” than ebooks “having a big number of pages”.
Anyway, I get my books without front covers for free from dumpsters.
Good point! I hope that’s true.
I also hope the price of actual books (and used books) doesn’t shoot up as they become scarce.